Need help! *vmware server 2*

I desperately need some help! I am a college student tasked with setting up VMware server for one of my classes. I am having a hard time getting a guest OS installed. Here's the scoop.

Going right off the install guide I've
- Installed VMware server 2, created a new datastore, and created a VM on that datastore.
- During the configuration I selected to install from an ISO, this will be XP SP1
- When I power on the machine nothing happens at all, no change in screen and no access to the console. I did get an error at this point, "no bootable media inserted"
- I removed and re-made a new VM, this time to boot from CD, I burned the ISO to a bootable CD and no longer get the error message.
- At this point I'm lost, I can't figure out why nothing at all happens when I power on the machine, I do get a confirmation message saying machine powered on successfully.

The project involves creating 4 VM's on my laptop. I'm not sure if needing more than 1 would matter at this point but figured I'd mention it.

This is my first experience with virtual machines, and unfortunately my professor is very hard to reach (it's an online class). Up till now he has been no help at all. I'm sure there is something simple I'm missing

It has been awhile since I've used VMWare Server, but you need to change the boot order options. If this is for a class, you should really be talking with your teacher if you are having issues. That is what you pay them for.

I have tried contacting him for 2 weeks now with no luck, others in the class are also complaining about the same issue. I will be talking to his department head this week but in the meantime I'm just falling further and further behind
It's definitely frustrating to say the least.

When you selected the ISO, did you select the option for "Connected" and "Connect at Power on" for the CD-ROM?

Know Nuttin said:

When you selected the ISO, did you select the option for "Connected" and "Connect at Power on" for the CD-ROM?

Click to expand...

I sure did, I just got home from work about an hour ago and double checked

I obtained an original CD of windows xpSP1 today and just tried with that, no change. Something happens when the virtual machine powers on because I can hear the CD drive spin up for about 30 seconds but nothing changes on the screen.

Are you looking on the console tab after powering on the virtual machine? Nothing will just magically pop up with VMware server 2. You have to go to the console tab, click as instructed on the screen and it will require you to install a plugin and then be able to view your VM.

mbentley said:

Are you looking on the console tab after powering on the virtual machine? Nothing will just magically pop up with VMware server 2. You have to go to the console tab, click as instructed on the screen and it will require you to install a plugin and then be able to view your VM.

Click to expand...

That's just the thing, I don't get a console tab, and the console options are grayed out under the "virtual machine" drop down box. Nothing happens at all when I start the VM except the confirmation message saying it successfully started.

Do you have an interface like this?



I can then click the console tab and get this:

That is the screen I'm at, except when I click on the machine under inventory I have no tabs at the top. When I click the start button nothing changes. Might be worth pointing out that I do have the summary, tasks, events and permissions tabs on the top icon in inventory (athena.mbently in your example) but when I select the machine I have no tabs at all. Also, all of the options under the "Virtual machines" drop down in the task bar are grayed out.

edit: now that I look closer at the first screenshot, I don't get that screen when I select my virtual machine. That's what my screen looks like when I first load up but when I select a VM I just get a blank gray window where your looking at the summary in that picture.

Hmm, I would have to say there is something wrong then. Those tabs should always be there no matter if your VM is on or not.

do you have to use vmware server 2? you could load up Oracle Virtualbox instead and give that a try.

I don't think so In the description of the projects we will be doing he said we needed to be using VMware server. I'm not sure if it's because we have to subnet all of the VM's once they are created or not but apparently we have to use VMware server

I did load VMware player up just to see if my computer was able to virtualize and that worked just fine, it's just the VMware server that's giving me all these issues.

I would uninstall and reinstall the server if I hadn't done that twice already, haha

Just posting with a drive-by query: are there any options, possibly under "Administration" to add toolbars or tabs, or change maybe the 'view' settings?

ihrsetrdr said:

Just posting with a drive-by query: are there any options, possibly under "Administration" to add toolbars or tabs, or change maybe the 'view' settings?

Click to expand...

I'm at work right now, but I'll definitely check when I get home! I did click on the administration toolbar but I don't remember seeing anything like that.

I got it fixed!!! Took all of 60 seconds. I actually thought about it while stuck in traffic on the way home from work.

I use Firefox religiously, and I hate internet explorer. Just for kicks and giggles I decided to force it to run in IE instead of Firefox and it's all clicking in

I'm not sure why it won't run in my Firefox, especially since the screenshots sent by the instructor and other students show them running it in Firefox =/

Very strange but at this point I don't really care haha .. now to get the 4 VM's set up and sub-netted, configure a firewall and IDS for them and I'm back in business.

Thank you all so much for your help, I really do appreciate it. This forum has a new fan now

I completely forgot about that. Mine didn't have the tabs missing, but I remember that I had to do everything in IE, now that you mention it.

Ah yes, IE is a must for VMware Server 2. When I load the console in anything but IE, it will actually sometimes kill the tomcat service and I will have to restart the web interface for it to work again.